For the State, Mr Mu­faro Mageza said a dis­pute arose after Ms Mpofu spent two days away from home without in­form­ing her hus­band of her where­abouts.

“On Oc­to­ber 4, 2016, at around 12noon, the com­plainant left her place of res­i­dence to her aunt’s place in Lu­veve without no­ti­fy­ing her hus­band. She spent two days at her aunt’s res­i­dence without com­mu­ni­cat­ing with her hus­band,” said the pros­e­cu­tor.

Mr Mageza said Ms Mpofu re­turned to her mat­ri­mo­nial home on Oc­to­ber 6 at around 6PM.

A heated ar­gu­ment al­legedly erupted when Phiri ques­tioned Ms Mpofu about where she had been.

Ms Mpofu al­legedly walked out on her hus­band and re­tired to bed.

Mr Mageza told the court that on the same night at around 10PM, Phiri put some wa­ter on the stove to boil and pre­pared some por­ridge.

“The ac­cused per­son then poured the boil­ing por­ridge on the com­plainant’s face while she slept on the bed.”

Ms Mpofu sus­tained burns on her face, hands and chest. She was re­ferred to hospi­tal for med­i­cal at­ten­tion where she was ad­mit­ted. A med­i­cal re­port was pro­duced in court as an ex­hibit. — @andile_t­shuma.